DATE : 3.11.2010
SUBJECT : Environment

A report on Public Radio International notes the impact of media in shaping opinion on climate change. The 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize, has been under attack from some quarters as a result of one paragraph incorrectly projecting when Himalayan glaciers could melt and a section overestimating flood-prone areas in the Netherlands. Although scientists note the mistakes are minor, the errors were compounded in perception by revelations of apparent bias in hacked emails by climate scientists. Many scientists, including the president's science advisor and the head of the National Academy of Sciences, are responding in defense of the integrity of climate studies. Penn State University Geosciences Professor Richard Alley, who helped write a section of the IPCC report, says the minor errors in the report have had a major impact on public opinion, which is misplaced. "It's shaken the confidence of some people in the public who have heard a lot of excitement about a bad paragraph and who may possibly think that because there's one bad paragraph, it's all bad," he said. "It's completely absurd. The effort that the authors put in, the quality of the science is very, very high."